


Bright we burn

by bellarose_riddle



Category: Vikings (TV)
Genre: Bad Parenting, Dead People, F/M, Modern AU, Terrorism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 22:22:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12945270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellarose_riddle/pseuds/bellarose_riddle
Summary: Ten years is a long time to be away from the one you love, but a trial for murder might just be the place to reconect.





	Bright we burn

Aleksandra had never expected to find herself in this situation, even after the bomb had gone off all those years ago, she had never expected that it would actually have consequences. Then Hvitserk and Ubbe had been caught and thrown into jail, and Sigurd had been chased and killed by the police not long after. Still, she had not seen the danger. And then Ivar had been caught, and she had fled town.

She had cried for them, all of them, and for the life she had been forced to leave behind, but she had never truly felt the fear of being locked up, the fear of death. And she had never regretted what they’d done. Never mind how many people they’d killed.

But now, walking next to Torvi down the aisle of the prison facility, it came to her, how real it all was–how real it had always been–and how lucky she had been to be able to run away. And yet, as they sat on the room the officer pointed them to and waited, she felt as if she were twenty again, and careless and free.

She was shaking, she knew it, and she could feel Torvi watching her closely. She could only imagine what the woman was thinking of her. Of the mess she was in.

The two of them had never been close, not even while Torvi lived with Björn Lothbrok, but she had been the only attorney Aleksandra knew in town, and the only one who knew her enough to accept her case. Torvi had been reluctant at first, she knew it, but she also hoped their past would remind the woman of the advantages of helping her. Not to mention that she knew Torvi could not say no to a challenge when it was handed to her.

“Are you alright?” her voice was but a whisper and she nodded.

“I’m fine.”

Her words were proven to be lies the moment the door opened and the officer walked in again, bringing with him the inmate they were here to see.

She had forgotten how handsome he was.

It felt silly, of course, that such a thing was her first thought even when she was deep in shit and in danger of ending up in jail or worse. She was no longer the seventeen year old girl who had loved a sharp minded, blue-eyed genius with a taste for danger and blood. And she was not the twenty year old who had jumped over the edge with him not caring for laws or punishments. No, she was a wife now, she had been for years (even if she and Alfred were not in the best terms as of late). And a mother too.

Still her body answered to the sight of Ivar as it always had as he walked into the room with the help of crutches and sat across from her. Once he sat down, the officer tied his wrists to the table between them.

He kept his hair tied back on a pony tail at the back of his head and there were lines around his eyes and mouth that had not been there when they had last seen each other. It was obvious he was well built and strong under his shirt, and she could almost remember how his skin felt under her fingers when they touched. Could almost remember how it felt to be touched by him.

“Aleksandra Morevna.” It was the purr in his voice, the roll of his tongue, the smile that she knew decorated his face now, that made her look up to meet his eyes.

And she had not been ready for it.

Because it didn’t matter if there had been ten years since they had last been together, they could have been apart for twenty years, thirty, more, and still his eyes would have held the power to hypnotize her. To make her come undone were she sat.

“I’ve missed those auburn locks.” He moved his hands, as if he might reach to caress her hair, but the chains bound him to the table. He rolled his eyes at that, and she laughed. “I’ve missed that laugh too.”

“Me too,” she admitted. And it was only when the words left her mouth that she realized how true they were.

In all those years, she had missed him, she had missed the way her blood heated when he looked at her, how her heart raced when they were together. But above all, she had missed his company, his sharp mind and crazy ideas. His friendship, his touch, his love. And the way he could read her like an open book and understand her better than anyone on the earth.

It was true, she had loved Alfred, she cared for him still, and for their kids. But even with them she had always felt a hole in her heart, like there was some missing piece of her that refused to come back and make her whole again.

Now she sat in front of that piece. And there were so many unsaid things inside the storm of his eyes.

Torvi took advantage of their silence to step in. “We are here because she’s on trial for murder, for that little bomb you planted ten years ago.”

He laughed and then reached across the table, as much as the chains allowed him, to touch her. Unable to take her hazel eyes from his, Aleksandra reached for him too.

His thumbs drew soothing patterns on her skin as he said, “Why would she be on trial for that? She had nothing to do with it. It was my idea, she was only the girl I was sleeping with then. She didn’t even know, only my brothers did.”

Ubbe had served for five years. Hvitserk for almost eight. But everything else he had said… Lies, lies, and more lies.

If Torvi knew, if she cared at all, she didn’t let it show, even if Aleksandra knew she had always hated Ivar. “Would you be willing to testify, then?”

“Put me on the stand,” he nodded, not looking at her. “I will say whatever needs to be said to keep her from this place.”

“Ivar…”

He closed his eyes and his hold on her hands tightened. She had forgotten, that it had been a long time too since he had last heard her say his name. Smiling when he opened his eyes again, she placed a kiss on their joined hands, all too aware of how he groaned in answer.

“I’ll do it, _skat_. Anything.”

Torvi rolled her eyes, she knew that. But she understood.

_I’ll do anything to keep you safe, skat. Anything to make sure we have a future_. It had been a promise whispered in a quiet hotel room; under sheets stained with the drinks they had so carelessly spilled in their rush to touch each other.

There was a cruel edge to his smile now that told her he knew she understood. This time, it was him who bent to kiss her hands.

 

* * *

 

 

They saw each other again on the court room the following week, where she sat next to Torvi in silence, all too aware of Alfred sitting on one of the benches behind her, watching everything. Still hating her for what she’d done. For who she really was.

But she didn’t really cared for what her husband thought of her, she hadn’t for a long while.

So she didn’t care that she let her eyes follow Ivar when he was called to testify. Even walking toward the stand in crutches, he cut an impeccable figure. And there was no denying the three-piece black suit he wore had been made for him.

His eyes were on her from the moment he sat down and then, when the district attorney started talking, Ivar smiled, and threw her to the wolves.

He said the bomb had been her idea. He said they had agreed to it, yes, but she had been the mastermind of it. He said he had loved her for it at the time. He said everything that needed to be said to condemn her.

In the end, Torvi managed to make him confess the D.A. had offered to release him the moment he testified against her and called for a recess. But Aleksandra didn’t really give a shit about that.

 

* * *

 

 

Now, as she walks down the street, she wonders if any of them has figured it out. If Alfred has realized she has fled the cafeteria where they had been waiting for Torvi to come back for them when it was time for the judge to dictate the verdict that would put her behind bars.

If he knows that she is not fleeing but coming home.

She guesses it won’t be hard for Torvi to discover she has been in touch with Aslaug, Ivar’s mother, since after she saw him in jail. And that Aslaug has in turn been in touch with him. She wonders how long it will take her to understand that it had been her idea to throw herself to the wolves, so they would not pay any more attention to Ivar, so they would think there was no way she would run, not when her old lover had just betrayed her.

The car waits right where she had been told it would and the driver opens the door to the backseat as soon as she approaches. When she sits, Ivar smiles at her.

“I’d almost forgotten how it felt,” he confesses. _The thrill of lying, the hunger for spectacle._

And Aleksandra laughs, and doesn’t stop laughing until he kisses her.

Wherever they are going, yes, she’s definitely home now.


End file.
